The Pendants Mystery : A Nalu Fanfiction

"I've found a job, Lucy!" said Natsu parading around with the note in his hand. "Be quiet and give it to me!" said Lucy snatching it up. "Hmm, let's see…"  Lucy scanned the request briefly. "Haunted tomb… Retrieve treasure from the center… Seems simple enough," she said handing the note back to Natsu "I'm not liking the haunted part though." Natsu grinned.
"You believe in ghosts Lucy?" Lucy thought about it.
"Well I do have celestial 'spirits' so I guess I do." Natsu got a horrified face.
"They're dead!" Lucy whacked him with her fist.
"No stupid! Tell Mira we'll take that one, I'm going home."
***
The next morning Natsu and Lucy were up bright and early for the train. Natsu already looked sick.
"The train isn't even here yet Natsu…" Natsu shook his head
"No I was thinking about what you said about the celestial spirits…" He gave Lucy a look "Can you not use your magic on this job…" Lucy laughed
"Natsu I was kidding; besides I don't think I could do this without magic." The train pulled into the station and Natsu and Lucy boarded.
"Hey Natsu, where's Happy?" said Lucy. "Oh, he chickened out *lurch* that whole ghost thing and all…" Natsu leaned on the window of the train with his mouth open. "We've got a long trip, you can't sit there with your mouth open the whole time." said Lucy pulling out a book.
"Just watch me!" said Natsu accepting this as a challenge.
***
4 hours, one book later, and they arrived at a dusty train station. It was poorly sheltered from the sun by a tablecloth pinned up on sticks that had been stuck in the ground.
"This is…" said Lucy scanning the scenery.
"Hot." said Natsu wiping drool off on his scarf.
"What?" said Lucy tugging on her skirt.
"This place. Hot." Lucy relaxed
"Oh, okay…" A cloaked man emerged from the shade of the tablecloth.
"Would you two be the ones from Fairy Tail?" Lucy showed her mark on her hand. "Yeah, that's us."
He removed his hood to reveal an old man with a kindly face.
"Good, I'll show you to the site." he said stepping off the platform. Natsu was about to whisper something to Lucy when the man turned around.
"Oh, and take this." He threw a cloak at them.
"Um, it's already quite hot here… And there's only one." said Lucy looking at Natsu. "It's to keep the sun off you, you can share it's big enough." Natsu and Lucy awkwardly shared the cloak. Natsu insisted on keeping his arm around Lucy to "Hold the cloak in place" which Lucy found irritating, especially since the old man kept giving them looks like "kids these days".
When they finally reached the location of the tomb, the sun was beginning to set and Natsu and Lucy were quite tired.
"Old man when-" Natsu began
"There it is." he said pointing to a cross statue in the ground.
"I guess I was expecting more of a pyramid…" said Lucy examining the thing. Natsu and the old man moved the cross aside to reveal a vertical hole in the ground.
"To avoid grave robberies we built a sort of labyrinth underground to guard her body. I recently found her will and remembered I should've inherited something we buried with her." said the man leaning against the cross.
"Who's this 'her' and what are we looking for?" said Natsu.
"She was my wife, and you're looking for this." he pulled out a sketch of a necklace shaped like a heart,
"It's a large ruby and not only is it just a ruby, in her will she said it contained magical powers." he handed the sketch to Lucy.
"What kind of powers?" she said putting it in her pocket.
The man shook his head. "Nothing special, just a little thing. If you follow the right path you should be lead to clues of what it does." He gestured to the hole.
"Well, have at it." Natsu leaped right into the hole, which was soon followed by a crash. "Natsu?" said Lucy down the opening.
"Ouch… I'm all right it's just a hard landing. I'll catch you." Lucy nervously slid into the pitch black hole. It was rushing air and darkness until she suddenly met Natsu's strong arms catching her.
"See? Not so bad is it." said Natsu putting her down.

The cold damp air was an unpleasant contrast to Natsu's warm embrace. He lit a flame in his hand and illuminated the area. It was surprisingly lovely for an underground tomb and much larger too. The whole inside looked like a church with glass panes and carvings on the floor.
"Wow, it's so pretty…" said Lucy feeling a carving of a horse on the floor. She was horrified to find that the head pushed in and there was a creaking sound underneath them. The floor split right down the middle and began pulling back. Natsu grabbed Lucy's arm and pulled her across the gap.
"What do we do?" said Lucy pressed against the wall. Natsu looked around panicked.
"I got it!" he said. He picked up Lucy and to her horror jumped directly into the growing gap. Lucy screamed and clutched her chest. She paused and looked around. Natsu appeared to be standing in thin air.
"What? But I-" He dropped her and laughed.
"Whoever built this place has an awesome sense of humor!" he said knocking on the floor.
"It's glass." Lucy sighed hugely in relief and stood up.
"Let's get going." Natsu lead the way with a flame and Lucy followed behind.
"Hey what's this?" said Lucy pointing to a plaque on the floor. Natsu knelt down and shined a light on it.
"The truth will be told."  Natsu read aloud.
"What does that mean?" he said standing up. Lucy wrote it down on the sketch.
"Maybe it's a clue to what this thing does… So it tells the truth." she put the sketch in her pocket.
"Let's keep going." she said grabbing Natsu's arm.

They soon came to a fork in the path.
"Let's go right."
"Let's go left." they said in unison.
"Oh, er…" Natsu scratched his head.
"We could split up." Lucy shook her head.
"Natsu you're the one with the light, you should decide." He thought and decided right was the way to go.
"Lucy, get off my arm." said Natsu after a little bit. Lucy dropped his arm embarrassed. "Sorry, I just thought maybe-" Natsu put a hand over her mouth.
He extinguished his flame.
"Looks like we've got company." he said grinning in the darkness. Flames shot out of his fists and the hall was lighted again. Four ugly dead things, resembling sort of giant skeletal lizards, crawled towards them.
"Ew!" said Lucy stepping back a few paces. Natsu easily bowled through the first wave, but with the second, there was more.
"Lucy, little help here?" he said breaking a head off one.
"Oh, right!" Lucy quickly summoned Taurus who managed pretty well.
"Natsu!" said Lucy yelling over the commotion.
"They just keep coming, I think we should run!" Natsu threw a lizard on the floor. "Sounds good! They're getting on my nerves!" They both weaved through the ever-growing masses of undead lizards and down the dark hallway.
"What if we miss a clue?" said Lucy. Natsu just kept running. They ran down long halls and turned corners quickly with the lizards in close pursuit.
"We need to lose them!" Natsu yelled sending a ball of flame behind them. Without Lucy's consent, Loki came through the gate.
"Lucy, I'll hold them off, you run!" He stood like a barrier between them and the lizards. "Thanks Loki!" said Lucy over her shoulder. Loki gave her a wink and jumped into the fray. Natsu continued bolting around corners for another minute or so, until they came to a door in the labyrinth. They ran through it and sat panting on the floor.
"That was… quite the run… Eh?" said Natsu grinning. Lucy coughed a little.
"What are those things anyway?" she said brushing hair out of her mouth.
"Hey look," said Natsu pointing to a pedestal in the middle of the room.
"Is that another clue?" They got up and Natsu lit a flame.
"When worn by the other." she said writing it down.
"What does that mean? It feels like it's missing something. The truth will be told when worn by the other." Lucy pondered it.
"Maybe we should go back? I wish Levy was here… she's good at these kinds of things." Natsu sighed.
"Well, I'm not going back there. Maybe we'll figure it out when we find it." Lucy rolled her eyes regretting leaving a clue behind.
"Well, let's try this door." They walked to the right of the pedestal and through a blue door. Through the door was a long winding staircase going down.
"Going down all these stairs is making me dizzy…" said Lucy holding the handrail.
"You could always slide down the handrail." suggested Natsu in perfect seriousness. Lucy smirked
"Yeah and tip over the edge. How about not." Natsu looked over the edge of the handrail. "It's not that far down, you'd only fall about… 15 feet." Lucy shoved him.
"You try it then if it's such a good idea." Natsu willingly jumped on top of the handrail and glided down. Lucy watched him, semi-impressed.
"Come on Lucy, don't be a whimp." Lucy sighed and sat up on the handrail.
"The things I do for Natsu…" she said slipping down. As Lucy had predicted she did begin to slip off the edge.
"Oh Crap!" she said falling off the edge. In half a second Natsu was there, holding to her hand. He pulled her back over and jokingly said
"Lucy you klutz, who told you to ride the handrail." Lucy growled.
"You- I don't- How can I even begi-"
"Lucy come on, quit mumbling and let's go."
At the end of the stairs was a wide archway into what looked identical to a church. There were pews and stain class and velvet carpets.
"Wow…" they both said breathlessly.
"Hey, what's that up on the alter?" said the less distracted Natsu. Up on the alter was a coffin with a glass door. They cautiously approached it, Lucy not wanting to see what was inside. Inside however was a perfectly preserved woman. She was dresses to look like a bride and looked peaceful, although dead.
"Is that his wife?" said Lucy looking her down.
"Hey, the pendant!" said Natsu pointing to her bosom. There resting against her chest was the pendant.
"What's that in the middle of it…?" said Lucy looking through the glass. In the center like a reflection on water was the face of the old man.
"What does that mean…? The truth be told when worn by the other… Natsu!" said Lucy prying at the coffin.
"Help me get this open."
They pried it open and Lucy took the pendant off the woman.
"Okay, Natsu, I have a theory about this pendant…" she said putting it on.
"Look at it now, what do you see?" Natsu watched the pendant flicker and the old mans face disappear. In its place came his own face.
"So, what do you see?" said Lucy fiddling with her hands.
"Er, I just see my face." Lucy blushed in the darkness.
"So what's the riddle? What's the truth about me?" Lucy took the pendant off.
"Natsu, could you put it on for a moment?" Natsu put it on reluctantly.
"I don't see what this-" Lucy gasped a little.
"What?" said Natsu looking at it.
"All I see is your face."
They both looked at each other, Natsu realizing the pendants power.
"Lucy, do…"
A tear ran down Lucy's face.
"Yeah…" Natsu put his arms around her and kissed her. Lucy reluctantly pushed him away.
"Um, Natsu… we'd better get this back to that old man and stuff…" said Lucy, heart still racing from the kiss.
"Yeah…" said Natsu giving it back to Lucy.
"Hey," he said looking up "is that the glass floor from earlier?"
Lucy looked up. "Hey it is!" Natsu put Lucy behind him.
"Stand back…" He picked up a candlestick that had long lost its candle and threw it as hard as he could at the ceiling. The glass cracked and broke making a reasonably sized hole for them to go through. Natsu picked up Lucy and jumped through the hole.

Outside, Natsu and Lucy came back up through the entrance clutching the pendant. The old man helped them out and looked expectantly at them.
"Well, what did you see?" Lucy handed him the pendant with a smile.
"She really loved you…" The old man got a wide smile on his face and looked at the sunrise.
"Thank you my children, now I can pass on peacefully…"
He lifted his hands towards the sun and disappeared into vapor. Lucy and Natsu watched the vapor glide towards the sun.
"So he was nothing more than a ghost, unable to be at peace because he never knew if she loved him…"
Lucy looked at Natsu. Natsu scratched his head.
"So… wanna make out?"